HELP! Lazy chickens!!

[halfpint512]

I have had my chickens now for 4 months. I recieved them already laying eggs, so they were already around 5-6 months old from an Amish farmer. I coop them whenever I am not at home in their covered run which is almost nightly from around 5:30 pm when I take my kids to lessons, and let them out at around 9 in the morning. They are also usually cooped up most of Sundays as we are gone to church.
They peck around in the grass and eat all of my kitchen scraps with relish! However, I have noticed that they do not pay attention to the bugs that are literally right in front of them?! I do have crumble in the coop and I have noticed that some of them are almost constantly going to the coop to eat it instead of scrounging. However I have a problem of having a few eggs that are consistently very thin, marble sized or no shell at all - even though the crumble has the oyster shell in it?? They have also developed the habbit of coming up on my patio and "knocking" on my glass door for food!

I wonder if I should only allow them to have the crumble when they are locked up? It seems like they are taking to the "easy" food and not willing to even work to get the fly that is right in front of their nose!

Ideas Please???

 

[Tiss]

Mine only eat certain bugs. I wonder if the ones they don't eat are poisonous or just plain stinky.

As for the shells, I would just give them extra oyster shell if you are having thin shells. I've also read you can dry eggshells in a warm oven and feed them back to them for calcium.

 

[Year of the Rooster]

You may be giving them too much of the table scraps. Try feeding them less maybe and they may be more interested since they won't be as full. Worth a shot? Kinda like feeding kids too many sweets/snacks i guess... then they don't eat the stuff that they're suppose to be eating

 

[halfpint512]

I do crack up all the egg shells after I use them to feed to the chickens. I have never baked them or dried them... they eat them right up no problem. So, do you all think I should pull their crumble...? so they are more willing to search for food?